Zum „Rheingold“ in der Neuinszenierung von Dieter Dorn am Grand Théâtre de Genève (GTG) eröffnete eine Ausstellung mit 13 meiner „Ring“-Poster-Kollektion aus Europa, den USA, Lateinamerika und Asien im Foyer des GTG. Die Poster von Neuinszenierungen der letzten 16 Jahre sind zusammen mit Postern früherer „Ring“-Inszenierungen am GTG zu sehen. Die Ausstellung geht noch bis zum Abschluss des 2. „Ring“-Zyklus am 26. Mai 2014.

Richard Wagner was a composer – he created music, a music which broadly set the premises for the musical development of the 20th century. Music is not visible, though Wagner lets Tristan say in his delirium at the end of “Tristan and Isolde”: “Wie, hör' ich das Licht?” – (“What? Is it the light I hear?”). That means, in a real masterpiece of universal dimensions such as the Oeuvre of Richard Wagner the boundaries between acoustic and visual perception are dissolved – you hear his music and you see before you what this music is telling you. And you see this poster collection assembled over the last 16 years from all over the world of opera and you will hear the music behind them, particularly when you know Wagner’s music. This is probably the case since you came to see the performance of the new production of the “Ring of the Nibelung” by Dieter Dorn at the Grand Théâtre de Genève – exactly one year after the composer would have celebrated his 200th birthday.

Wagner’s opus magnum, the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” is the subject of this exhibition. The work on this largest ever opera oeuvre created by man occupied Wagner for some 25 years and thus a considerable period of his life. In the four music dramas “Das Rheingold”, “Die Walküre”, “Siegfried” and “Götterdämmerung” he projected his vision of a better world, demonstrating the incompatibility of power and love.

With the “Ring”, Wagner proposed socially revolutionary ideas and concepts of great relevance for the life of us human beings and societies at large, with a real claim to universality. This can be seen in manifold facets on the “Ring” posters of this exhibition. There is the rainbow over which the Gods walk into Walhalla in Helsinki and Seattle, reflecting the almightiness of divine power. There is fire again and again as an elementary and finally uncontrollable power symbolized by Loge in the “Ring”, mainly in posters from Essen, Helsinki, and Wroclaw. Many of the posters appeal to the myths inherent in the “Ring”, like the ones of Cottbus, Detmold, Los Angeles, Mannheim, Paris and Sofia.

You see Brünnhilde in Dortmund throwing a shell into the old world curing it from Alberich’s curse – a pigeon of peace flies off into a hopefully better future…

You see the Ring itself in many ways, mythologically stylized in association with the Chinese Dragon in the Shanghai Grand Theatre or in the acclaimed short version ColónRing in Buenos Aires in 2012.

Enjoy the adventure of a visual walk through Wagner’s “Ring”-Oeuvre and try to hear the music behind what you see, asking Tristan’s question the other way round: “What? Is it the music I see?”

Klaus Billand